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Standartenführer Rayner Herzog Wiki
Standartenführer Rayner Herzog A Standartenführer of an SS Einsatzgruppe division, Rayner Herzog is a merciless Nazi commander whom was stationed near Øksfjord, Norway during World War II. History Rayner Herzog was born on 17 October, 1892, in Hudingen (Hampont) near Salzburg (Château-Salins), then in the German province of Elsass-Lothringen, the youngest of 11 children of a lower middle-class family. His father was a station master described as a German patriot. Herzog was an underachiever in school, dropping out at the age of 17 before graduation, instead joining the Imperial German Army. He joined the 23rd Bavarian Infantry Regiment at Landau as a volunteer, and then was transferred to the Bavarian 3rd Infantry Regiment in 1913. Upon the start of First World War in 1914, Herzog participated in the Lorraine campaign, fighting at both the First Battle of Ypres in 1914 and the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, and was with the 2nd Bavarian Foot Artillery Regiment at the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Herzog served as a clerk, an assistant paymaster, and a front-line infantryman, and for his bravery during the war was awarded the Iron Cross, First and Second Class. Late in 1914, Herzog's commander had approved his request to temporarily return home on leave to marry Maria Reinmann of Ilmenau on 26 December 1914, with whom he had two stillborns: a daughter and son on 5 April 1916, resulting in the death of his wife. Reportedly, relatives of Herzog had fought on the French side during the war. Following the end of the First World War, Herzog remained as an army paymaster now in service of the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, until resigning from the position in 1919. Herzog began studying at a technical school in Ilmenau, but was forced to drop out shortly due to a lack of funds. From 1920, Herzog pursued a career as a police officer working for two different departments, initially worked as an informant and later as a regular policeman. Herzog's police career was ended in 1923 due to his open hatred for the Weimar Republic and his repeated participation in violent political demonstrations. He found work in 1923 at IG Farben in Ludwigshafen and remained there as a "security officer" until 1932. Herzog's views on the Weimar Republic mirrored those of the Nazi Party, which he joined as member number 114,901 on 1 December 1928, and also joined the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's paramilitary street organization led by Ernst Röhm. Herzog left the SA by August 1930 to join the Schutzstaffel (SS) as member number 2,921, where he quickly rose in rank after recruiting new members and building up the SS organization in the Bavarian Palatinate. In 1931, Herzog was promoted to the rank of SS-''Standartenführer'' (equivalent to colonel) by Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer of the SS. In early 1932, his political activities caught the attention of his employer IG Farben, who subsequently terminated his employment. At the same time, he was caught preparing bomb attacks on political enemies in Bavariafor which he received a two-year prison sentence in July 1932. However, due to protection received from the Bavarian Minister of Justice Franz Gürtner, a Nazi sympathizer who would later serve as minister of justiceunder Adolf Hitler, Herzog was able to avoid his sentence and flee to Italy on orders from Heinrich Himmler. Italy at the time was already a fascist state under the rule of Benito Mussolini, and Herzog was entrusted by Himmler with running a "terrorist training camp for Austrian Nazis" at Lake Garda, and once even had the privilege of "showing Italian dictator Benito Mussolini around." In March 1933, less than three months after Hitler's rise to power, Herzog returned to Germany. Upon his return, Herzog had political quarrels with Gauleiter Joseph Bürckel, who had him arrested and detained for several months in a mental asylum in Würzburg. During his stay at the mental hospital, Herzog was stripped of his rank and SS membership by Himmler for having broken his word of honor. Also during the same month, Himmler set up the first official concentration camp at Dachau, which Hitler had stated that he did not want it to be just another prison or detention camp. In June 1933, after the mental asylum's director informed Himmler that Herzog was not "mentally unbalanced," Himmler arranged his release, paid his family 200 Reich marks as a gift, reinstated him into the SS, and promoted him back to SS-''Standartenführer.'' On 26 June 1933, Himmler appointed Herzog kommandant of an Einsatzgruppe after complaints and criminal proceedings were brought against the division's first commander, SS-''Sturmbannführer'' Hilmar Wäckerle, following the murder of several detainees under the "guise of punishment". Herzog requested a permanent unit and Himmler granted the request, forming the SS-Wachverbände ''(Guard Unit). At the beginning of World War II in 1939, the success of the Totenkopf's sister formations the SS-Infanterie-Regiment (mot) ''Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the three Standarten of the SS-''Verfügungstruppe'' (SS-VT) led to the creation of three additional Waffen-SS divisions in October 1939. Herzog was given command of a new division, the SS Division Totenkopf, which was formed from concentration camp guards of the 1st (Oberbayern), 2nd (Brandenburg) and 3rd (Thüringen) Standarten (regiments) of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, and soldiers from the SS Heimwehr Danzig. After Herzog was assigned to combat duty, his deputy Richard Glücks was appointed the new CCI chief by Himmler. By 1940, the CCI came under the administrative control of the Verwaltung und Wirtschaftshauptamt Hauptamt (VuWHA; Administration and Business office) which was set up under Oswald Pohl. In 1942, the CCI became Amt D (Office D) of the consolidated SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (SS Economic and Administrative Department; WVHA) also under Pohl. Therefore, the entire concentration camp system was placed under the authority of the WVHA with the Inspector of Concentration Camps now a subordinate to the Chief of the WVHA. Pohl assured Herzog that the command structure he had introduced would not fall to the jurisdiction of the Gestapo or SD. The CCI and later Amt D were subordinate to the SD and Gestapo only in regards to who was admitted to the camps and who was released, and what happened inside the camps was under the command of Amt D. On 2 December 1943, Herzog was stationed in Øksfjord, Norway. The SS Division Totenkopf, also known as the Totenkopf Division, went on to become one of the most effective German formations on the Eastern Front, fighting during invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, as well as the summer offensive in 1942, the capture of Kharkov, in the Demyansk Pocket, during the Vistula–Oder Offensive, and the Battle of Budapest in 1945. During the course of the war, Herzog and his division became known for their effectiveness but also brutality and war crimes, including the murder of 97 British POWs in Le Paradis, France, in 1940, while serving on the Western Front. The division was also known for the frequent murder of captured Soviet soldiers and the widespread pillaging of Soviet villages. Herzog was killed on 26 February, 1943, during his duty in Norway, when rebellious villagers drove him and his soldiers into the Istind mountains. The lot soon froze to death, along with various trinkets and other gold material kept within a chest that is yet to be recovered. On 7 May, 1945, Nazi Germany had officially surrendered to the Allied Forces, just a month after the death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April, 1945.Category:Browse